Sometimes the projects we work on take the longest to complete, which is completely true in my case. For the past two years, I have been devoting myself to working on two 1:1 scale Haros. Both of which have been monumental in painting.

(Bandai, please send me a whole crate full of them.)

Size-wise, I can compare them to the same size as a basketball, maybe a tad bit bigger. I got one from a giveaway and the other from eBay.

One is complete and one is semi-close to being done. What a pair!

Let’s look at the complete one first

Number One

It was interesting to try and drum up ideas on a paint job for this dude. After a few ideas, I went with this loose swirl line art style. Each line was done with a thin paintbrush. Over 20 colors were used and mixed for this project. This includes neon, pastel, flat, inks, and more.

The ear flaps were an original idea that I junked at the very beginning of the paint job.

The painting process was time-consuming. I easily put over 50 hours of work into this. Let each line of color dry before moving on to the next to prevent potential smearing or bleeding. 

As time went on the theme slowly revealed itself.

“The Colors of Space” is a theme borrowed from Lovecraft. There’s something about cosmic horror that I just adore. Which led me to my next progress on the project after the outside was done.

Space!

This was achieved by spray painting the inside with three thin layers of black primer. After that I did some very light layers of spacey (using that as a technical term) colors based off the Pelican Nebula.

Smaller stars were done with a toothbrush splatter and watered-down white paint. The larger ones were done with the airbrush. Then it was topped with a glossy varnish, also done with an airbrush.

Then the top coat was hand-brushed on the outside after touch-ups.

Then it was complete! Luckily I finished it just in time for Granitecon in October of 2021 (started in December of 2020)

On to the next one!

This one has been taking longer than the last due to a change in the paint scene.

This is what the original scheme was but as it went on I ended up disliking it. So I stripped it with rubbing alcohol (90%).

Time to try again!

This one is more inspired by urban areas and graffiti. Unlike the previous big haro, I went with more yellow and warm tones and threw in a few cool tones. I also wanted more sharp angles and turns.

This one I titled “Under the Bridge”. I’m still unsure of what to paint the inside. I was thinking of subway graffiti or maybe a more natural tone to compete with the industrial vibes.

So far I have about 10 hours or so put into this one. I’m trying to maintain the angles as best as I can.

I’m excited to see how this one turns out.

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Have a happy Thursday everyone!

-J